A training teammate of mine, Pru Chapman, swam for New Zealand in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. She swam three events, 100m back, 200m IM and 4 x 100m medley relay. By today’s standards her times were pretty slow – 1.15 for the 100m back and 2.42 for the 200m IM. Pru also taught me the expression, “as thick as pig shit”. I have no doubt that is exactly what she would say about the abuse being written on the Kiwi Swimming Facebook page.
The stuff written there is not true, it is ignorant, and it is as thick as pig shit. I have no idea how some self-appointed “experts” reach their conclusions. Are they stupid? Perhaps they just don’t know? Perhaps their intention is to be deliberately provocative? Whatever the reason they certainly achieve an unbelievable level of mind-numbing ignorance. I’ve heard of black coffee being used for a similar purpose.
But a journalistic nadir was achieved this week in the Kiwi Swimming Facebook page. 700 words were devoted to tearing Gary Francis apart. I’d sue if Kiwi Swimming hurled half the abuse at me that it directed at Gary Francis. Mind you perhaps Gary doesn’t care. Abuse from that source is without merit.
Comparing Gary to the lunacy of Kiwi Swimming is an insult to Gary. But I’ll do it anyway. For example:
Sentence one says – “This is the power struggle that some coaches are not happy with”. My guess is that should, more accurately, say, “this is a power struggle that my new bff, Gary Hollywood, is not happy with”. Hollywood needs to be careful. Being mates with New Zealand’s premiere swimming dingbat is not the best way to progress Lewis Clareburt’s career.
Sentences two to four tell us the stunning news that Gary is a staff member of Swimming New Zealand (SNZ), sets qualifying standards and is a selector of national team swimmers and coaches. Well bugger me, I know Gary’s title, “Targeted Athlete and Coach Programme Manager”, may be a little complicated for the intellectually challenged. But really, being a staff member, selecting New Zealand teams and setting qualifying times seems to fit with his title and are within SNZ’s constitutional duties. Someone balanced and knowledgeable has to do these tasks. Gary has those qualities. Which is more than you can say for his critics.
Then there is this libellous rubbish – “He was probably involved in backdating the selection criteria to April 2021 for world champs and Commonwealth Games just prior to Nationals 2022 in April cos he was worried that certain swimmers would not qualify at Nationals.” There is the clear inference that Gary cheated to get his favourites into the Games team. Not in a million miles is that true. Gary doesn’t cheat. He has bent the rules when there is a benefit to his country. Look how Lewis Clareburt’s career blossomed as a consequence of Gary’s decision to include him in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games team. I must have missed Kiwi Swimming’s bitch about that selection.
Gary’s next cardinal sin, according to Kiwi Swimming, was to be “Team Manager for the world champs”. What’s so bad about that? Gary has been playing or coaching professional and amateur sport since he left high school. He was educated at the world leading sport’s university – Loughborough College and he is not affiliated to any one club (like Jan Cameron was). And from what I’ve heard from a swimmer I had associated with the world championship team it was managed to a standard you would expect from someone with Gary’s resume.
And then, in the greatest libel of all, Kiwi Swimming says this – “He also gave advice to swimmers at worlds like a coach would do, costing at least one swimmer a possible pb”. The inference behind that smear is disgusting. Why doesn’t the spineless author come out and say what he really thinks – Gary was such an intellectual incompetent he went around dishing out advice that hurt the national swim team. My swimmer also got advice from Gary. All of it good, sound stuff. Information that did contribute to Eyad’s string of PBs.
And then another “bugger-me” moment. According to Kiwi Swimming, – “Any query on selection to the convenor of selectors gets relayed back to one man to answer – Gary Francis”. What is so wrong with that? Gary is on the committee. He is entitled to access the complaints they receive. He is the best placed person to guide the committee. Does Kiwi Swimming really want committee members kept in the dark? Probably, yes, is the answer. Kiwi Swimming has never liked the honesty that comes with fresh air.
We are getting close to the end of Kiwi Swimming’s assassination of Gary Francis. For weeks Kiwi Swimming has been obsessed – to a point where he could be in need of medical intervention – with the fact that in some list Lewis Clareburt was shown as swimming the 200m freestyle, not the 200m butterfly. I have no idea why the mistake occurred. It may have been a simple error – who knows? I’ve done the same thing a million times. It is not unusual. Remember when the NZOC forgot to enter Dame Valerie Adams in the Olympic shot put? In Clareburt’s case the problem was fixed. Clareburt swam and won the 200m fly. But moving on is not what Kiwi Swimming does. He has that cup of coffee and has to pour it over someone.
And as we near the end, Kiwi Swimming tells us – “Francis also decided that relays were not to be swam at Commonwealth Games which could have cost us a medal.” I have no idea why Gary decided to exclude relays. But he did and New Zealand ended up with its most successful Commonwealth Games swimming team in twenty years. Let me think – would I trust Gary to make that judgement or some lunatic with a computer screen in Wellington?
And finally, finally Kiwi Swimming pleads for New Zealand to understand that “This kind of decision making, quite frankly, cannot continue. What’s Francis going to do next?” My hope is that Gary Francis, Steve Johns and Nick Tongue continue to do exactly what they have done in the past three years. And while they do that, could they improve swimming by suing the pants off Kiwi Swimming and drowning his computer in a hot pot of black coffee?
PS – Gary’s biggest sporting failure isn’t mentioned by Kiwi Swimming. He supports a team in English Football – someone like Sheffield Wednesday – who never win anything. Mind you I support Leeds United, and they are not much better.